Monday’s Ministry Musing: How Important IS a Testimony?

This may be one of those articles that I look back on 10 years (or 10 days) from now and regret. I think I may be flirting with the idea of tipping over a sacred cow of modern evangelicalism. I’ll show you my cards up front…I’m not sure a personal testimony is really as important as we make it out to be.

With every church interview I have ever been a part of this question is inevitable…”would you please share your testimony”. Granted, it’s a good question. You want to know that the person you are considering for membership, leadership, or whatever is actually a believer. The motivation behind the question is a good one. However, I do not think it is the right question.

Have you read anything in the New Testament where a person was asked to share their testimony?

I will grant the fact that Paul shares his story of coming to Christ. So does John in 1 John 1. In fact there are many places in Scripture that are personal stories of the work of God in the life of a believer. My point is not to say that personal stories or “testimonies” are not valuable. They are immensely valuable. My point is that personal testimonies are not an accurate criteria for judging a person’s salvation nor is it definitive in proclaiming the truthfulness of the claims of Christ.

A personal testimony really is not an accurate barometer as to a person’s relationship with Christ. Consider the early Gnostics. They had amazing testimonies. Think about the Colossian heresy. They went on and on about the visions and experiences with God that they had. Surely, you have known people with phenomenal “testimonies” that later forsook the gospel and rejected Christ. Despite what some evangelism material will tell you a personal testimony (by itself) has no authority. You can be an unbeliever and have a great story to tell of how you came to a Jesus of your own making.

And honestly, not having a clear testimony is not really all that accurate in telling that a person is not a believer. Ask Jonathan Edwards of his personal testimony and he’d probably stutter to tell you. John Bunyan would probably give you several dates. Do you think Peter would give you the day when he was called by the lake, was it when he professed Christ, or was it at some other point on his journey with Jesus? There are many people that do not have a S.P.O.T. (Specific Time or Place) that strongly profess Christ.

I have a challenge for you Bible/church history buffs. Find me times in Scripture or in the first 300 years of Christianity when someone’s story of coming to Jesus was a determining factor in admitting them into membership or participating in the Lord’s Supper? I am not saying that you will not find anything. I am simply saying it will not be a pervasive theme like it is in our day where subjective experience reigns over objective truth. What you see in the New Testament and the early church is a profession of belief in the claims of Jesus Christ…not a story.

There is one last sacred cow—maybe THE sacred cow—that needs to teeter. Your testimony is not really all that definitive in sharing the gospel. Oprah has a testimony. Heretical “Christian” groups have testimonies. A Muslim would have a testimony. This will sound like heresy…Jesus is not the only thing that can change your life. A homeless man that inherits a million dollars will have his life changed. An alcoholic that stops drinking will have his life changed. A woman whose family leaves her will have a significant life change. Many things can change your life.

Your testimony does not prove the truthfulness of the claims of Christ. Yes, it is true that nobody can argue with your personal testimony. That’s the problem. You can’t argue with it because it is subjective. The claims of Christ are objective truths. This type of witnessing just leaves the door wide open for the, “well that’s good for you…but as for me…I believe”. People need to be confronted with the claims of Jesus—not your story.

In summary, I am not against personal testimonies. I just think they are not nearly as important as we make them out to be. They are not all that helpful in witnessing and they aren’t the final answer in determining salvation. Feel free to disagree and argue your case. I’m willing to listen. If you agree with me I have a question for you. What are testimonies useful for?

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About Mike Leake

Mike Leake is the lead pastor at FBC Marionville, MO. He is married to Nikki, and is the father to Isaiah and Hannah. Mike is currently pursuing an M.Div at SBTS...and by "currently pursuing" he means hoping Jesus returns before he has to take that final Hebrew class. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus is All You Need.WebsiteTwitter

I agree wholeheartedly with what you wrote. A testimony is a great way to praise God for how He worked in your life. It is awesome to hear how God is still active and how He works outside of the context we normally see.

However, I often see testimonies used in ‘evangelism’, and there’s where your points about other life changing events comes in. I am in 100% support of using testimonies in evangelism IF those testimonies contain the gospel. If they don’t, they are just another bunch of anecdotal stories.

Funny (or sad depending on your perspective) story time for a testimony! 🙂 God used this very thing to being me to Christ. I was introduced to biblical Christianity by three of my friends at work. One friend of mine was concerned that two other friends of mine were not Christian because they could not remember the time and date they were saved. His idea of ‘testimony” was “what were you doing, what were you wearing, what was on TV, etc…when you asked Jesus into your heart?” and since they couldn’t remember, he doubted their salvation (no matter that they could articulate the gospel as well as or better than any other Christian I knew, understood its implications, and believed it wholeheartedly). I was a non-believer at the time and was only peripherally listening to this debate. Long story short, that debate led to my salvation.

God certainly does work in mysterious ways. My testimony involves me coming to Christ through an intramural debate between three Christian friends on whether or not two of them were saved, and that in light of Calvinism and Arminianism.

I have had experiences myself…and actually heard teaching at a youth camp, where the speaker said if you do not have a SPOT (specific place or time) then you probably are not saved. I had many confused teenagers. And had God not already brought me through some serious confusion on this I probably would have been bothered myself. Because, truth be told….I’m not 100% sure of when I was saved.

July 18, 2011 3:51 pm

Christiane

Witness . . . it depends on the strength of the witness
In the Southern Baptist Church, one of the strongest witnesses was the gift of self that left Lottie Moon weighing only fifty pounds, having given away her food to the Chinese she love, in the Name of Our Lord. Even in the Anglican Church, Lottie Moon is revered.
In my own faith, one of the recent more eloquent witnesses was the gift of self shown by the body of Mother Teresa on its pall covered with the flag of India; except for the silent testimony of her badly- deformed, gnarled bared feet, which the flag had failed to cover.

The total and humble ‘gift of self’ in the lives of these two tiny women, done in Christ’s Name and out of love for others, calls to us to ‘follow Him’. Their lives pointed always to Christ, not to themselves.
Indeed, at the end of their lives on this earth, they had used up all of their physical strength in following Him.

Witness . . . some words ?
Or a ‘gift of self’ done freely and lovingly for His Sake, while immersed in the misery of a suffering world who waits for His loving-kindness ?

“How important is a testimony?” For those who have a personal testimony, it’s very important! Sadly, there appears to be a trend to mistrust personal Christian experience in preference for doctrinal propositions. A genuine personal testimony springs from a direct experience of grace, an encounter with the living Christ. Folks who have felt this touch would never exalt personal testimony over the authority of Scripture, for in Scripture they find confirmation of their experience and confirmation of Scripture through their experience. Most who have a personal testimony willingly share it with others as they have opportunity, knowing it to be an avenue to tell about their life before trusting Jesus Christ, how they came to trust Him, and something of what it has meant to know Him. In my Christian journey, I have shared my story and heard the personal testimonies of countless others – I’ve found this to be an effective way of uniting believers and prompting unbelievers to examine themselves. Yes, personal testimonies are very important in the body of Christ and Kingdom work.

The word “testimony” means a testifying, what one testifies, and refers to the “brothers” whose accuser was cast down by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony. Sounds pretty powerful to me.

I think too often, folks are trained to offer some “canned” dissertation, when what we need to be doing is just telling our story, sincerely and plainly. Doing that, everyone’s a minister. And that’s IMO how it should be.

July 18, 2011 11:31 pm

Jason

Our personal testimony may be compelling, but it isn’t the testimony we are charged to tell.

The testimony we are supposed to communicate is that of the Jesus and His Gospel: His life, death, burial, and resurrection. THAT testimony saves, our testimony is simply a story.

Telling “our story” is nice…but it isn’t what we are commanded to do, nor is it very important in the scheme of things.

Bob,
I’m not at all opposed to a both/and. In fact I think Paul gives an example of sharing a testimony in a way that exalts Christ.

I would say though that a personal testimony without a gospel presentation is lacking…whereas a gospel presentation without a personal testimony is not. Of course by that I don’t mean that our life and experience with Christ is not inextricably linked to a gospel presentation.

July 19, 2011 8:36 am

Christiane

“Of course by that I don’t mean that our life and experience with Christ is not inextricably linked to a gospel presentation.”

I’m glad you affirm this, but instead of an ‘of course after-thought’, this statement deserves its own post. 🙂

I had a tremendous experience of conversion. Seeing Jesus in a vision or a hallucination (how can one tell which is which?), knocking at a door, is rather overwhelming. Later on you find that others are not converted that way, and, as you live in this world and life continues, you find that the experience is a good begining point but it is not the norm. God’s norm, His rule for life, is His written word, Holy Scripture. Reason and the mind working through the precepts, truths, teachings, etc., of the Bible, are far more important that we imagine. In fact, the Bible demands an intellectualism of the believer that is hard to imagine. Even the very beginning of the Christian Life involves a change of mind based upon a thorough thinking through matters. It is called repentance which, sadly, is often described with the puerile idea of simply turning around (without any thought of the thinking process required in order to make the turn around). Metanous is a change of mind based upon reflection, and perhaps one of the reasons for a more effective evangelism in the `18th century was the fact that the preachers were more aware of that meaning of repentance and preached it.

I cannot tell you the times I’ve heard preachers, F.A.I.T.H. leaders, etc, describe repentance as “turning around”. Even walking across stage, and turning around and walking the other way to demonstrate.

I’ve been telling them for years that a thief who stops stealing only for fear of getting caught, hasn’t changed his mind. Hasn’t repented of his ways. But it never seems to register…

Metanoia .. 1) a change of mind, as it appears to one who repents, of a purpose he has formed or of something he has done.

That’s the word in Matthew 3:8, 3:11, 9:13, Mark 1:4, 2:17, etc.

July 19, 2011 7:59 pm

Christiane

Hi BOB CLEVELAND and Dr. WILLINGHAM,

Are there any of the following that you would recognize as a part of repentance?

1. regretting/acknowledging the sin;
2. forsaking the sin;
3. worrying about the future consequences of the sin;
4. acting and speaking with humility;
5. acting in a way opposite to that of the sin (for example,
for the sin of lying, one should speak the truth);
6. understanding the magnitude of the sin;
7. refraining from lesser sins for the purpose of
safeguarding oneself against committing greater sins;
8. confessing the sin;
9. praying for atonement;
10. correcting the sin however possible (for example,
if one stole an object, the stolen item must be returned
or if one slanders another, the slanderer must ask
the injured party for forgiveness);
11. pursuing works of chesed and truth;
12. remembering the sin for the rest of one’s life;
13. refraining from committing the same sin
if the opportunity presents itself again;
14. teaching others not to sin.

the above concepts are part of ‘teshuva’, the Judaic ‘turning again towards the Lord’, and some of these concepts have application to Christian repentance

I would say most of what you list, Christiane would definitely be a part of repentance. The change of mind is based upon reflection, upon thinking through the sin done, that is, from God’s perspective, being grieved at treating His supreme goodness with such evil, coming to realize the magnitude of sin (having seen the great wickedness that sin can lead to and is and involves), crying for the wherewithal to turn from it. Humility is that brokenness of heart, that sense of shame of having done evil to an innocent party (ultimately the innocent party is God, of course). The only atonement I seek is the one already performed for me, the redeeming propitiatory sacrifice of Christ which not only takes the sin away but makes a true satisfaction to the law of God for it. I can hardly write of such things without getting to the point of feeling like crying, broken hearted at having served my Lord in such sorry fashion.